Vienna - hosting world-changing congresses since 1873

Patents, Commerce and Art

The World's Fair’s strong educational programme helped set the foundations for Vienna’s emergence as the leading congress destination of the industrial era. The International Patent Congress – still considered a milestone of international patent protection to this day – took place then as did the important Congress of German Economists.

The Erster kunstwissenschaftlicher Congress set out a formalised path to art conservation, helping to make Vienna the art powerhouse it is today. Meetings of the flax, brewing and fruit and wine growing industries in Vienna also raised the bar in 1873.

Vienna in 2023: still bringing the world together

150 years later, Vienna is a leading international meeting destination attracting thousands of meeting participants each year. Major international medical congresses attracting upwards of 10,000 participants each this year at the Austria Center Vienna and the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center included The European Congress of Radiology (ECR) and the Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). Others attracting more than 5,000 delegates included The Annual Congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) and the Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM).

Palace hotels and modern tourism

The 1873 World's Fair also triggered a boom in new hotel construction in Vienna, which would establish the city as a tourist destination. Many of these grand old buildings remain among the most prestigious hotels in the world today.

"I have never had such a beautiful room in any hotel in the world," said Charlie Chaplin of the Hotel Imperial Wien, located on Vienna's Ringstrasse boulevard, which opened a few days before the 1873 World’s Fair.

Another hotel to open its doors in 1873 was the Hotel Höller, which today is boutique property Sans Souci Wien, located next to the MuseumsQuartier and the Volkstheater.

Today’s hotel scene remains as vibrant as ever with many contemporary new hotels sitting alongside the glorious historic palace properties. Offering equally special settings for events of all kinds, new openings include the Rosewood Vienna, the Hotel Indigo Vienna in the fashionable Naschmarkt neighbourhood and The Leo Grand, a glamorous monument to an ostentatious emperor.